Back in the 'sixties Mad Magazine did a brilliant send-up of the ubiquitous little catalogs from mail-order outfits like Spencer Gifts and Lillian Vernon, which offered crappy, low-cost "gift" items. Mad, exaggerating only slightly, featured a catalog from the "House of Krudd (formerly Krudd Bros. Junk Yard)," peddling such items as the "Bent Coat Hanger Repair Kit: makes a great hobby for the senile and the stupid!" and, my favorite, the "Combination Tire Pump and Lemon Squeezer" which, as an accompanying illustration showed, was just that: a tire pump with a lemon squeezer attached to the handle with masking tape; the catalog copy advised it was "great for campers!" and that you could get it "personalized," if desired.
All that came flooding back with news from
Instapundit concerning bogus items submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency for certification for its "Energy Star" program. One item submitted and approved was a "Feather-Duster Fly-Strip Air Freshener," which, according to
Popular Mechanics, was a "standard space heater spangled in strips of flypaper, with a feather duster perched up top."
Geniuses like those at the EPA will soon be in charge of our health care. Pray you don't get sick.
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